Colorless
by FloggingBri
Summary: A story of loss and new found love - with a twist, everything is in black and white when his wife dies. Will someone be able to bring life and color back into his life? AU This is my first published work so reviews would be so awesome. Thank you! Now COMPLETE.
1. Loss of Color

I sat by her bedside, holding her hand, praying to whoever was listening that she would get better, that she would smile again.

Her light latte colored hair was gleaming less and less, becoming brittle and dull and her dark brown eyes that had hints of amber in them when she smiled or when the sun hit them just right were losing their gleam. I had fallen in love with those eyes and now they were slowly losing their twinkle.

I blinked back some tears and the world suddenly turned black and white. I closed my eyes and shook my head thinking it must be the stress of my wife, the love of my life, my soul-mate, dying in front of my very eyes and I couldn't do a damn thing to stop it.

My eyes were heavy but I didn't want to fall asleep. I couldn't...not now.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and closed my eyes. I opened my eyes again and my wife was the only thing in color, her tawny hair, sallow skin, and her slowly closing brown eyes - everything else was different shades of grays, black or white.

"I'm so tired..." she quietly said.

I blinked again and everything was back in color. I shook my head again and looked at the woman I loved lying in front of me.

"Get some sleep, darling." I got up from the chair and leaned against her chapped lips giving her a kiss pouring all of my love into that kiss.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too..." I swallowed another lump forming in my throat. "Get some sleep."

I grabbed her hand again and sat back down.

Sleep finally overcame me and I leaned my head down on her hand and everything slipped away as I lost the battle with sleep.

There was something cool was pressed against my cheek.

"Sir?"A soft voice came to my ears. "Sir..." she said again, this time timidly.

I knew before I looked up - I had chased every witch and wizard healer out of the room, yelling not to disturb me unless they wanted me to...what had I said...I remember it was something with disemboweling...

"Sir?" Gods, what did she want?

"What?!" I snapped at her still keeping my head down on the bed. I could hear her move away from me.

I felt the coolness against my skin again and my head shot up.

The world had taken on a plethora of grays - the sky outside the window, with white fluffy clouds, was a bright gray, my own hand was light gray; I looked down at my wrinkled shirt that had, when I fell asleep a deep green, was now a dark gray. There was no color except from my wife who had slight tints and rays coming from her.

Her eyes were open, their twinkle gone, but now instead of the deep brown that I loved, they were almost a black with amber tints; her hair was almost white instead of the toffee color it had been.

I lunged forward grabbing onto her. She was so cold. I started yelling and crying - screaming at the top of my lungs.

Two men came rushing into the room and grabbed me under the arms trying to wrestle me away from her.

"Get the fuck away from me! Let me hold my wife!" I screamed at them.

I looked at them in their long robes and they were in hues of gray, black and white. The timid healer was standing in the corner, again in monochromatic black and white. What the hell was going on?

I kicked over the chair as they pulled me away from her. My wife was the only thing with any color in the room and it was slowing fading as time seemed to slow down as the men wrestled with me to get me out of the room.

All color faded from her as they drew a blanket, now black, that I had known for sure was blue last night, up over her.

I stopped kicking and allowed them to carry my limp body from the room.

Everyone around me was dressed in black. That wasn't what surprised me, I mean for Merlin's sake it was a funeral; what surprised me was what else was. Since her death, everything I saw was in some way black or white. I saw no color, except for pictures of her and even they were slowly losing their color.

I swallowed, no emotion showing from my face. I couldn't even get up to say a eulogy.

I looked over at the picture of us at a charity ball we had been forced to attend and saw her slender, form fitting deep green dress robes and sparkling jewels of several colors at her slender throat. Her toffee colored hair was cascading down over her shoulder and was sleek in tight, bouncing curls. In the picture, she was smiling and I stood next to her in my sleek black robes, then I reached over and grabbed her hand. She looked at me, smiled and we kissed. Flashbulbs went off everywhere. I saw the green, it was becoming less and less vibrant. I blinked - black and white. I blinked again - green hues.

I looked at the casket and saw all the flowers covering it but none of them had any color. The multitude of different hued roses, lilies, and her favorite, orchids were all colorless and looked dead.

I heard the voices of those praising her life, her achievements. I drowned it out.

I felt a cold drop hit my cheek. I closed my eyes and felt more and more frigid water hitting random places on my body.

I heard people getting up from their chairs and moving away from me. I heard multiple people cast spells to repel the falling water. I opened my eyes in time to see two wizards with their wands out slowly lowering her casket into the ground and then covering the deep hole with freshly dug earth.

I continued to sit there, letting the rain soak through my clothes, plastering my hair to my forehead.

I sat there until the wizards had finished and ran to get out of the rain.

I finally got up, soaked to the bone, freezing but I didn't care. Water dripped from my bangs. I looked at the marble headstone marking where my wife was laying. My tears started to mix with the cold water running down my face.

I fell to my knees, numb from the cold and the shock.

Next Time:

Four Years Later...

I had become adjusted to the world around me being black and white.

Everything around me were only black, grays or white - people included.

I continued on with my life but I had become harder, more cynical and almost never talked unless I had to.


	2. Vibrant Red

**Four Years Later...**

I had become adjusted to the world around me being black and white.

Everything around me was only black, grays or white - people included.

I continued on with my life but I had become harder, more cynical and almost never talked unless I had to.

Many women found their way into my bed but they were always gone the next morning.

Everything continued on like the normal I had become accustomed to over the past four years until one day in the midsummer.

I walked down the cobbled streets of Diagon Alley, looking at the stores that had once been vibrant and were now dull, monochromatic and my eyes just skimmed from one store to the next.

I went into Flourish and Blotts and was skimming a book I had picked up at random when, from the corner of my eye, I saw the most beautiful thing - the vibrant color red.

It had passed by the end of the shelf I was standing in.

My head jerked up and I threw the book down, running to the end of the aisle.

I looked everywhere and all around me was the normal, damnable black and white.

"Sir?"

I ignored the wizard at the front counter.

"Mr. M -" I didn't let him finish as I ran out the door.

I couldn't find it - the brightest red I'd ever seen, or at least in the past four years. I turned my head and whipped around looking for what caused the color.

I looked at the end of Diagon Alley and saw it again - a flash of a red dress. I ran past witches and wizards doing their shopping, shoving people out of the way, hearing cursing and protests as I ran by.

I got to the end of Diagon Alley and she was gone. I quickly got out my wand and exited out into crowded pub.

Tom began to say something to me and I interrupted him, "A woman in a red dress!"

He looked at me like I was crazy.

"There was a woman in a red dress! Who was she? Where did she go?!"

"'M sorry, Sir, didn't see anyone."

I ran out of the dark pub onto the Muggle filled street. Muggles went past me, chatting incessantly. I looked wildly around trying to find her and I saw no color anywhere except a peony on the side of one of the shops. Stripes passed across it like someone's light fingertips had glided across it. It had to be her but where in Merlin's name had she gone?

I picked the flower gently and cradled it in my gray hands - vibrant pink. It was beautiful. My heart sank as I realized she had gone...possibly forever.

I became despondent and returned home.

I stared at those three lines running across the dark gray flower for hours. The color was slowing starting to fade back into gray; only slight hues of pink were now visible.

I opened a bottle of Firewhiskey; I drank, glass after glass as the flower began to melt to my normal view of the world.

The bottle was empty before I knew it.

I looked at the peony laying on the table and all color had disappeared.

Suddenly an anger I hadn't felt in a long time erupted out of me and the empty bottle flew across the room and shattered above the ornate fireplace.


	3. The Brightest White

**Thank you to all that have been reading and following my first story. I hope that you are liking it. *hopeful smile* Disclaimer: I'm just a dreamer and wish I had written the amazing series; everything belongs to the amazing J.K.R.**

 **Widkama:** Thank you! I hope this doesn't disappoint. =)

 **Continuing on...*bites nails***

I woke up the next morning with one of the worst hangovers I had ever had but I didn't care. I rubbed my eyes and groaned, reaching blindly for the bedside tables with random potions I kept in it. I opened one eye and fumbled around in the drawer; the bottles clinking together made me cringe. I found the Hangover Draught I was looking for and drank it in one swallow. The pounding in my head was slowly receding and I got up out from under the covers and sat on the side of the bed.

I had to find her...whoever she was.

I sat outside in the bright sun with the Daily Prophet propped up in my lap; I had been coming here for weeks now...always looking but never finding _her._ They had known that I never wanted anything but I was always allowed a seat in the same spot, always watching, able to scan the length of Diagon Alley from where I sat.

I read news that didn't interest me at all...Kingsley did _this_ and _that_ and a picture of what I'm sure was him in his bright purple robes he had always worn.

I flipped through the paper until one article caught my attention.

 **" _Draco Malfoy, Has He Finally Lost It?"_**

An article by Rita Skeeter, of course. I thought she had stopped writing. I clenched my jaw and scanned the article - it of course mentioned things that didn't need to mentioned; a picture of me...a picture of me sitting outside the small cafe I was at now...a picture of Matilda...I watched the picture of her smiling. Just like the other pictures of her that I had stored away in the house, they had some slight color to them but I noticed they had less color than before...when I had seen the woman in the red dress. So many emotions went through me at once - anger, regret, love, despair.

I threw the paper down in disgust and ran a hand through my ear-length blonde hair. What was I going to do? How was I going to find her?

"Mr. Malfoy? Sir? Over here!" I looked up suddenly at the clamoring voices. I left the Daily Prophet on the table and almost knocked over my chair standing up so quickly. I walked around the gated porch where the other tiny metal tables were and quickened my pace as I quickly tried to escape the crowd.

"There he is! Sir? Mr. Malfoy!" I ignored the giant mob that was blocking the cobblestone pathway through Diagon Alley.

I kept putting my hand up and covering my face while flashbulbs sent blotches of light in front of my vision. This was so distracting that I almost missed it - curled caramel hair up in a messy ponytail and what had to be the whitest and brightest white I had seen in these last four years in the way of a short sun dress. Her skin was tanned and seemed to glisten in the sun. As I watched her saunter away, the lace covering the low swooped back of her sun dress showed freckles where the sun had kissed and marked her skin. I wouldn't, no, I _couldn't_ , let her escape again.

I pushed past the paparazzi, ignoring the comments they were making for their Quick-Quotes Quills and the flashing of the cameras. I had to get to her. It felt like my life, my sanity even, depended on it.

I ran down the alleyway towards the woman, my salvation.

I finally caught up to her and grabbed her rougher than I had meant to. The world around me suddenly and blindingly flashed with colors - vibrant blues, iridescent greens, deep and majestic purples and blossoming yellows. It was all too much and I doubled over, covering my eyes, groaning. I remember falling to the ground and hearing the voices of the paparazzi running forward. I groaned again.

"Malfoy?" a feminine voice caught my attention. I knew that voice...it was so familiar.

I opened my eyes to see her hovering over me, a look of worry on her face. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen - her chocolate eyes with flecks of amber that I had never noticed and that seemed to look straight into my soul; caramel ringlets framing her sun kissed face; her full red lips and pink, rosy cheeks.

I blinked multiple times to see if the color receded and it never did.

"Gr-?" I could't get the words out and kept stammering as I lay on the cobblestone that had bee warmed by the blazing sun.

I had found her...the woman who could bring color back into my life was none other than Hermione Granger.


	4. Explosion

"Malfoy?"

"You're so beautiful..." I said awestruck.

"What? Are you having a heat stroke or -" Hermione looked up at the oncoming mob of reporters. "Shite...Come on."

Hermione grabbed my hand and everything erupted into light again. She helped pull me up and still holding onto my hand, starting running along the winding alley. Colors whipped by me and I was too engrossed in everything to say anything - Hermione Granger, the girl I had once treated as an enemy was now the gorgeous woman who was going to "save" me.

She looked behind her, her eyes meeting mine for a split second before traveling back to the mob of people trying to catch up to us.

We quickly ducked into a small alleyway and she told me to hold on. The familiar pull of apparating overtook me and next thing I knew I was standing in what must be Hermione's flat.

She let go of my hand and the world slowly lost most of its color - it was so mind boggling; she was in color and what I guessed things she had recently touched had streaks of color on them - small blue finger prints were on an abandoned coffee mug sitting on her kitchen table, the musty yellow of the _Daily Prophet_ had streaks from where she had scanned over some of the articles and turned its pages. Pictures lined the walls and the large open shelved divider in the middle of the room had dull, colorless frames with her smiling with men and women I didn't know, two people who had to be her parents and several of her, the Weasel, Weaselette and the Boy Wonder, who were all in monochromatic tones but her...splashes of all different colors met his eyes from all over the room.

"Malfoy?" _Her voice...I had never realized it sounded so angelic. What was I thinking? This was Hermione Granger I was talking about but she no longer had buck teeth, no longer was the hair framing her face beyond managing and frizzing out of control or a thin body that was always hidden under robes._

She was now a woman, who in my eyes literally gleamed with radiance. As she bustled around the kitchen making tea, her shoulder length curls gleaming golden brown hair that had fallen out of her messy ponytail bounced and swished as she went around her small kitchen.

I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

She turned around and met my eyes; all this color was sending my brain into overdrive. I couldn't stop staring at her face and then saw her perfectly formed pink lips moving. I didn't hear a single thing she said...all I could do was stare.

"Malfoy?" she said louder literally less than an arm length's away from me.

I could have reached out and touched her.

 _What am I doing? This is Hermione Granger...what is going on with me? Was I really going mad? But then...she could possibly make my world come alive again._

She reached out and touched my shoulder. Everything around me flashed in brilliant color again and I gasped like she had burned me and moved back. All around me, objects slowly turned back to my normal hues of grays.

"Draco..." I stared at her in disbelief. _Granger...I mean, Hermione...just said my given name._

I glanced up into her worried eyes.

"Malfoy...You're really starting scare me. Do you need to go to St. Mungo's? Are you alr-?" _Her voice, just like everything I had never noticed about her, until this moment, was beautiful._

I didn't let her finish before my lips crashed to hers. Fireworks of color exploded behind my closed eyes. I yelled out, pulling away with my head in my hands.

"Draco? Draco?"

Everything went silent and black.

My head was resting on a lumpy pillow. _I know my pillows are softer than this...I'll have to have Binky grab some new ones from storage._

My head was throbbing along with my heartbeat. I groaned.

" - don't know what happened; I was making him some tea at my flat and he...he..."

"He what?" Both of those voices sounded familiar.

"Well, he kissed me and then he grabbed his head and fell to the floor yelling out in pain. I got him here as soon as I could, Nick."

 _Hermione...Nicholas was here too? Why was he here?_

I tried to open my eyes. I noticed how bright it was...not from light but from the color I could see through my squinted eyes.

I cautiously opened my eyes wider.

My first sight was of her. Her hair had been let down to tumble over her shoulders, her arms were crossed in from of her chest and she was talking to my friend and personal healer, Nicholas "Nick" McPherson. She looked worried and absorbed in everything my friend was saying.

" - since Mattie died, so I'd say about four years and I could never find anything wrong with him. He's completely healthy in all ways except -"

"I don't know about all that, Nick." I said gruffly.

Hermione jumped a little and Nicholas turned to me and laughed.

"Glad to see you back, Drake." He held up his wand and waved it in front of my eyes.

"How are you feeling?"

"I can see, Nick..." That's all I had to say. His eyes widened in shock. He started waving his wand around my head in a flurry of movement and I could tell an image of my brain had come up above my head. I didn't care about any of that - all I could look at was her.

She still looked extremely worried and she was looking up at whatever scan Nick was doing of my brain at that moment.

"Nick..."

He was muttering in amazement to himself. " - four years! All of a sudden? What changed?"

"Nicholas," I said louder and more clear. I cleared my throat. "Could you give us a minute?"

"Oh...of, of course. I'm running some tests and getting data when I come back though." His voice was full of astonishment.

"Yeah, you can run all the tests you want...just...just a few minutes?"

He immediately stopped whatever diagnostic spell he was doing and excused himself.

My eyes had not left Hermione.

She bit her lip now that we were alone and quirked her head at me.

"So..." Her voice was soft.

I raised myself up off the bed and itched; looking down I saw I was in one of those infernal hospital gowns.

"So, Hermione Granger...what do you want to know?"

She looked into my steel grey eyes and hesitated for a few seconds.

"Everything."

I spent the next hour telling her about the last four and half years of my monochromatic life and how she had, for some reason, made me see again.

After I had finished, she stared at me with a look of disbelief. She didn't say anything for a long while.

Hermione finally got up and crossed her arms across her chest again. She started pacing back and forth across the room.

"I - I...that is to say...I..."

"Hermione Granger with nothing to say. I'd say this is a first."

She rounded on me and magic seemed to crackle through her hair. _I just want to run my hands through those gorgeously messy curls._

That thought made me shake my head a bit. What had she done to me? I hadn't seen her in years.

Her voice brought me back from my thoughts.

"Oh, trust me, Draco Malfoy, I have plenty to say and ask. Like, for one, why me?"

"I don't know, Gra - Hermione. I really don't know. This is as strange to you as it is to me."

"I really doubt that, Draco."

"How do you figure?"

She stared at me like I had three heads with Dragonpox. Hermione began pacing again.

"You tell me all of this about not being able to see colors since your wife died but I, for some strange reason, _I_ am the one that is able to make you see the world in color again? You've hated me for years, Malfoy. I'm a Mudblood in your eyes," I flinched at the word that now grated at me.

"Don't use that word, Hermione..."

"What? That's all you ever called me!"

I sighed and tried to explain. "I've changed. When...when what happened at the Manor..." I fell silent as she closed her eyes.

I cleared my throat and tried again. "Anyway, after everything, after my father went to Azkaban, I really began to think what had been instilled in me by my family and I realized how ridiculous it all was."

Hermione opened her eyes again to stare into mine. The orbs of deep chocolate were welling with tears that threatened to stream down her flawless skin.

A long pause followed again. She moved towards me and I felt the magic crackling in the air around us.

She stared at me for a long moment before sitting down on the side of my bed.

I cleared my throat and began to move my hand slowly towards hers; it felt wrong not being close or touching her.

"Did you feel it?" I asked quietly.

She looked me straight in the eyes and stared for what seemed like an eternity.

"Feel what, Draco?" she asked. I knew she knew what I was talking about. _Granger...always with the questions._

"When I kissed you..." Her cheeks reddened with a blush and she turned her head away. "When I kissed you...the world felt right... _I_ have never felt so right. I have never felt that much magic before..."

"I broke your curse..." she said, almost a whisper.

I sat up in bed coming closer to her - a rush of vanilla and wildflowers washed over me. I breathed in the heavenly scent and I felt absolutely at peace.

"In that instant, the world stopped for me. Everything felt right in the world and all I wanted to do was to be close to you. I wanted to tell you how amazingly beautiful you are and that you are stunning, talented, albeit a know-it-all but a gorgeous know-it-all...everything from your hair to your lips to your tiny beautiful feet is amazingly gorgeous to me. I wanted to feel your lips against mine and to tell you how I feel."

It all came out in a rush and I had no intention of telling her that much.

She turned her head towards me and gave a small gasp when she realized we were now mere inches away from each other.

"You are stunning, Hermione."

A tear leaked down her face. I reached a hand up to her face and she leaned her head into me as my thumb wiped it away.

The magical crackling in the air was becoming stronger and palpable by the second.

She looked down at my lips before looking back up into my eyes. Hermione gave a small smile before she slowly leaned in and brushed her lips against mine. Everything felt so right and perfect kissing her. We continued to give small chaste kisses back and forth until I couldn't take it anymore and pressed my lips more insistently against hers. She wasted no time in kissing me back. Even though we were sitting at uncomfortable angles with each other, neither one of us seemed to care.

Each of us pulled back and our breathes mingled I leaned my forehead against hers. She smiled and bit her bottom lip.

"Hermione Granger, will you do the honor of allowing me to take you on a date?"

Her smile widened as she nodded, "Yes, Draco Malfoy, I would love that."

She got up from my bed and as I was about to protest, she motioned me to move over as she laid down in the bed next to me. I wrapped my arm around her protectively and gave a kiss to the top of her head.

All was right with the world at that moment.

"Wait..." She leaned up so she could stare down at me. "How do you know what my feet look like?"

I laughed and pulled her back to me, kissing her lips quickly.

"That's a story for another day." I continued to chuckle as she glared up at me.

Everything was the way it should be.


End file.
